Forget about the big ball in Times Square. Select a Champagne that pairs well with Buffalo wings. Make sure your New Year’s Eve date likes college football as much as you do.
That is the message the sport’s powers that be would like to get across by Dec. 31, when the two semifinal games of the College Football Playoff are scheduled to kick off in the afternoon and the evening. If all goes according to plan, millions of viewers will ring in 2016 by watching the final minutes of the second game.
“The College Football Playoff will change the paradigm of New Year’s Eve in this country,” said Bill Hancock, the Playoff’s executive director.